Summary of Project

This project was a great experience. I was really terrified at the idea of using a bandsaw at first, since I have no experience in a wood shop, but was I went on, I felt more and more

comfortable with it.  The bulk of the work for my vessel was done on the sanding belt. I spent at least three class periods (over 9 hours) sanding and rounding the edges of my tornado to produce the effect that I desired.

I did face a few struggles, such as being too simplistic. That is why I decided to add the  tray to hold my grandmother’s bracelet. I felt like not only did it add dimension to my story, but also made my vessel more complex, and added a needed flow with the similar pearls in the angel.

Another struggle I faced was being able to stand the tornado up straight. After flattening the bottom edge, I drilled a hole in the base and in the bottom of the tornado. I then glued a dowel rod inside of the hole, to add additional support.

Overall, I’m really glad we had this project.. It opened the doors for me to able to create even more things, that I didn't think I could do before

Concept Statement

While there is a whole lot more to this story, I had to condense it. If you would wish to hear the whole thing, leave me a message or ask me in person and I will be happy to share the whole thing with you.

The spiraling tornado on this vessel represents a changing moment in my life. After watching my grandmother collapse from cardiac arrest in Branson, Missouri and being life-flighted to the Springfield Hospital, I knew she was lucky to be alive. This thought was reinforced when the Joplin tornado occurred the very next day, completely destroying the helicopter she was in and the nearby hospital. While in ICU, my grandmother received an angel, which gave her comfort in knowing her life had been spared from death several times. She now gives angels to anyone she knows that maybe sick or going through a hard time. My grandmother has inspired me to create this vessel and to showcase this angel that she gave me and her bracelet to remember how easily one’s life can be taken. 

Final Vessel

I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to stain my vessel or not, but I'm definitely glad that I did. It makes it seem like a finished project and also creates the sense of a tornado with the darker color. 

 The pearls on the angel worked really well with the pearl bracelet. It made for an overall better representation of the story and contrasted well with the dark background.

Construction Process

I began with a fairly large block of wood. Then I cut the outside curved shape that I wanted. After that I took a small layer of wood of each section and increased the amount as I went to the bottom. While receive lots of criticisms at first, asking if this was my final piece, I wasn't positive, it was the correct move to make, but I stuck with it because I knew I could create what I was imagining. 

Once I started sanding and rounding the edges, I decided that I made the right choice. After 9+ hours using the sander, I managed to complete the rounded edges. 

I then created the base, which required more sanding and rounding. To attach the base to the tornado, I drilled a hole in both and glued a dowel rod inside of them. I also thought it needed another aspect, so I added the tray for the bracelet. 

Summary of The Nature & Design of Aesthetics by David Pye

In this essay, the idea of different materials and their efficiency is brought up. While something may be strong and sturdy, it may still rust. On the other hand, if it’s made out of wood, it won’t rust, but it may not be quite as sturdy as a metal would be. Another aspect to consider is the size that the material is available in. If the material is too small, it would be difficult to cut precisely. If it is too big, the material would be difficult to maneuver. Next is discusses the idea of flat surfaces. Any flat surface can be attached to another flat surface, but if the top is curved, and the bottom is flat, combining the two now becomes difficult. 

The article then switches course and talks about how we view beauty in art and how art is a way to view someone’s personal life, views, and idea of happiness. Everyone defines happiness differently and not one definition is true.The purpose of design is to promote human happiness, but it can not

simply produce happiness, but merely expand upon one’s already existing feelings and opinions.

Practice Runs

I created a rough example of the shape I wanted to make out of foam core. It was my original idea, which was more abstract and had straight edges. 

 Although I was terrified to use the bandsaw, starting off cutting small pieces to try it out helped me quite a bit to get over my initial fears.

 Then doing a practice run of my project wasn't too difficult and I became familiar with the machine.

Main Idea

After doing some mind-mapping, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to create the abstract tornado, because I felt like that one had the most meaning to me.

 Here are some preliminary drawings and ideas I came up with...

3 ideas

The boxes I designed are as follows
The first was a way to store all of my track medals. I came up with three sections, which resembled the three places that receive medals and the stage the winners stand on. The medals would be stored in a paton like container which would have sliding door and they would be stacked inside.

The second idea was to create an abstract tornado in order to represent an incident my grandmother had the day before the Joplin tornado. There was a lid designed and the outside was cut into parts and rounded to create an curved pattern.

The last one is a holder for my snow globe from Pennsylvania with the Liberty Bell. The outside mimicked the outside shape that contains the actual bell and a bucket like object would hold the globe from a chain. 

3 objects

We had to come up with three objects and three different ideas of how to display those objects by making a vessel using primarily a band saw.

The three objects I chose were a snow globe from Pennsylvania, my medals from track, and my angel from my grandma.

Summary of Project

          In this project I have learned the importance of taking more pictures than you need. Being over-prepared was very helpful in this situation. This project has really challenged me to think outside of the box. It would be easy to just assemble the collage the way that the actual location looked, but to skew different aspects of the image and looking at detail was the challenging part.

          Some troubles I faced were being able to capture my location with trains in it because it was very rare that a train would stop on the tracks. I was lucky enough to drive by when one had stopped, which greatly benefitted my ability to complete this project. My original idea was to use the back to back continuous long line of train cars into my collage by tiling my images in one long row. However, after coming up with the idea of using the X shaped box, I decided to revolve my project around the sign itself. I put all my images with the rail road crossing sign in the center of the X to indicate the crossing and the middle of my image.

           Extending out from the middle of the X is both views of the train looking East and West of the sign. On top I included the location at sunset to show a varying time range and on the bottom I showed closer details of the railroad, the rocks, and other

details from the bottom of my image.

          Overall, I really enjoyed this project and being able to be creative with my

photographs. I thought the whole concept of creating time and space through the use of two-dimensional images was really an intriguing idea and I would probably continue projects like this on my own free time.

Final Collage

Work in process

I had so many images printed out that it covered my entire floor with pictures. After thinking about my options I chose to create my collage on a cardboard X to emulate the idea of a railroad crossing sign. I felt like this would bring an entirely new element of creating space.

Ways of Seeing

This whole video focused on the idea that a piece of artworks location can greatly affect how it is viewed. Its original location is obviously the most legitimate place and solidities its meaning. However, since the invention of the camera, replications are abundantly common. A reproduction of an image can allow for millions of views anywhere, in different contexts. By placing it in a different location, it loses some of its meaning. If you show an image in the

Classroom, it may seem the same but you can not see the texture of the painting, the proper lighting, or as Berger states, “the silence and stillness of a painting”.

          Now with replications it is mysterious the cause of the market value. The image is so readily available to us, you would think that the original would go down in value. However, the opposite is true. Because we are so use to seeing images on screens and so forth, viewing an original gives a sense of awe because of the closeness to something that a famous artist created.

          Different contexts of a painting doesn't just have to be its location. If you put an image with two very different songs, you will have completely different emotions involved. The use of images in videos also alters the meaning of the work. Just like those images are skewed in meaning, we can also intentionally skew our images in our collages to achieve the emotions we want for our project.

Reflection of Errol Morris Video

          According to Errol, all photography is staged. Using the example of an elephant outside the image, she shows that the image can not show what it crops out. You can not see the absence of something. What makes an honest photograph? He says that they are neither true nor false.  It is a two dimensional image torn out of reality.  To understand the image, we must do further research it. This can be achieved by simply asking the photographer.

          A second point he made was about iconic images. He states that, “they become iconic because they have a certain power over us. We see so much power in them.”. Certain images have meaning because they're iconic, but you should be curious as to what you are actually looking at.  Going beyond the cropped out image and finding out what else is going on is something that we can not do using photography.

          That is why I enjoy it so much. This can be seen as a bad thing, but I think that being about to crop out the unnecessary and focus on one tiny aspect creates a new world and a sense of wonder in the viewer. Maybe it isn't telling the complete truth, but that’s what grabs the attention of people. That mysterious feel makes people think and also them to put their own implications and meaning to each image.

          In relation to our project, I feel this video relates to the  time and space. We attempt to help the viewer with the questions they may have, by adding multiple pictures with little detail and creating an image with approximately 75x more information that you would get from just one simple image.

Refined ideas

After thinking about my location ideas, I refined it down to two different ones, Jaybowl and the train crossing. I started by creating images in photoshop to help me get an idea of how to lay thing out. Then we used prints and organized them by hand

Photo Collage Ideas

I have four different location ideas for my photo collage. 

1. Looking out from Wescoe Beach at the students and cars that go by.

2. Jaybowl (including cosmic bowling)

3. Snow melting in my backyard

4. The Train Depot and the graffiti on the trains

Hallmark- Matt George

I went to Hallmark Symposium on Thursday and really enjoyed Angelia and Matt's presentation. One thing that stuck out in my mind was Matt's work with Scion. The graphics he made had a graffiti feel, which is something that I am passionate about. Also after looking at his site, I realized that he made tshirt designs to go along with a commercial. Just seeing how one idea and one graphic can turn into several different media platform and products. Here are some of his designs.